Starbucks
Category: Coffee & Tea [Edit]
675 Portola Drive(between Fowler Ave & Sydney Way)
San Francisco, CA 94127 (415) 682-9477
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Wi-Fi: Paid
135 reviews
Neighborhood: SOMA
"I heart the Axis Cafe! I work nearby and it is my absolute favorite lunch spot near work. The food is excellent, the prices more than fair.…" read more »
16 Reviews for Starbucks
The four things synonymous with Christmas: presents, family, parties, and peppermint hot chocolates!!! After trekking from West Portal where they were completely out of chocolate and mocha, I wind up in this starbucks only to find out they're out as peppermint...what are the odds? I end up ordering a grande mocha macchiato. The barista apologized and made my drink on the house. :)
This is my favorite starbucks in the entire city. I don't know the baristas personally but every single one is super friendly.It's spacious with a fireplace and truly an asset to to the neighborhood. However watch out for the 3pm rush of weekdays when it turns into a daddy-day-care and a field a tots bumrush the place. (Since when do kids drink coffee anyway?)
This is my neighborhood Starbucks--the friendliest staff ever! They had some turnover in Jan 2008, so I am not seeing the same faces anymore (boo, Chris, come back--it's not the same), but still just as good.
It has a funky smell, though.. not sure what it is, but the steam always makes the place smell moldy or something...
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Apparently, this Starbucks isn't JUST my destination when I need an iced tea and I'm too lazy to brew/chill a batch myself. It's also my polling place, so I'll be voting there, too.
Out of fear that they'll turn me away from the polls, I'm giving them a good review. (Also, the people who work there are really nice, the drinks are always exactly what I wanted, and I've never waited longer than 60 seconds to get my order.)
Also, they'd get an extra star, but they got rid of their free wireless internet. When they had it, my roommate would go down there so she could play World of Warcraft...but then she'd get really paranoid that everyone knew she was geeking it out in the corner. Now she only plays at home or at work.
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Hot coffee and idle banter usually mix to form an ideal morning, but rare moments arise when my soul yearns for solitude. While there's another Starbucks closer to me that's heavy on high-dollar baby strollers and people yakking into cell phones, I've found the 20 minute walk to the Starbucks on Portola to be a worthwhile effort when I feel the need to appease my inner hermit.
It's decorative schema and music are straight out of the corporate cookbook. Management-approved artwork hangs from earth-tone walls, while a large window combines with overhead track lighting to provide a varying degree of luminescence that gradually dims as one moves towards the rear of the establishment. The place is BIG for a San Francisco Starbucks....big enough that I've never had a problem finding a seat here. And from a customer-demographic standpoint, the crowd is typical of any Starbucks....no age group, ethnicity, or definition of hip seem to rule the roost. Better yet, the customers at this location are largely sedate, solitary, and delightfully dull.
Another reason to like this spot? Fog. Fog or light precipitation lends a bit of ambiance to the ideal coffee vibe. And when fog rolls into San Francisco, the top of Portola is usually one of the first places to see it. Other positive aspects include standard-issue wireless access along with laptop-friendly A/C outlets every 12 feet.
Bad points? Myself and rocket-fuel went our separate ways many moons ago, and the decaf coffee at Starbucks seems to be abnormally high in residual caffeine. The bathroom door is customer-accessible, but it's usually locked...and using it requires badgering the staff for a key. It's out of the way location is a mixed blessing: Though it hinders access, it also helps to keep the masses at bay. Still, Forest Hill MUNI is only several blocks down Laguna Honda, and the 48 Quintara makes a stop 50 yards from the front door.
It's quiet. It's solitary. It doesn't host a horde of beautiful people or packs of social lions, but it doesn't attract screaming toddlers or exuberant teens either. All in all, it's a pleasant trade off...one where human interaction is sacrificed for the sake of unhindered solitude. Nothing about this location is either extraordinary or unpleasant, but it has it's place. If you're looking to get away from society for several hours and you're willing to take a bus to do it, that familiar green sign at the top of Portola could be an option...
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San Francisco sure has a love-hate relationship with Starbucks. On the one hand, they're the BIG EVIL CORPORATION out to destroy our city, one quirky neighborhood coffee house at a time. On the other hand, it's hard for us to hate anything coffee-related, especially because, let's face it, Starbucks does a decent job of not appearing soulless. Maybe that's just because Walmart has lowered our standards. Or maybe it's because those of us coming in here are too caffeine-deprived to notice.
Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and play the Seattle native card (meaning that for me Starbucks actually counts as a *local* chain, which makes it ok:). Nevertheless, I always choose Peet's or indie places if I get a chance.
That said, this is the closest coffee shop to my house (and I must point out that their coffee is better than Creighton's next door), and all of my out-of-town and/or hungover guests dig the fact that they can walk here through the cold fog, then bring back their latte and sip it in front of the fire. Plus, it's my local voting place, which is super cool.
Even Pirate T called it her favorite Starbucks in the city!
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Ok, I dont know how much you can say about ANY Starbucks, but I love this particular one because it offers FREE WIFI, w/o signing up for the TMobile crap. Altho I did not enjoy my orange mocha, I got some work done. Nice interior and a parking lot if you drive. But again this place is a SCORE for free internet! Just be hush hush about it people.
This is the only Starbucks I know of where more often than not,the coffe is consistent.The staff are extremely friendly,and it's not too busy.The time to avoid?Lunchtime when school is in and all the kids from the hideous high school across the road come in to ablitorate the place.
The bathroom is disgusting - so avoid it at all costs.Come to think of it, I have never been in a clean bathroom at any Starbucks, so the management need to work on this one.
Apart from that,this Starbucks is pretty good.
Ahh, Twin Peaks. Land of fog and shadow. On the outside it might be dreary, so apparently, they made up for it on the inside of this Starbucks.
This one's a bit bigger than many of the others in the city (could the one in the Castro be any smaller?). There are wooden chairs, some cushy seats and a fireplace. A fireplace? Well, I haven't seen it on yet, but they have one. It is almost as if this Starbucks has some, uhm, personal character to it.
This bucks of the star is a good size. It has a decent restroom (because a time in need, is a .. time indeed?). The baristas (that's fancy Starbucks talk for employee) are required to be friendly. What more do you want to go with your grande mocha frappacino with whip.. What's that you say? Decent parking? Well, my friend, you're in luck. They gots that too.
Now, if we could only work on that outside weather. I almost fell backwards yesterday from the onslaught of wind coming my way when I stepped out.
I wouldn'tve stopped in were it not for the fact that I'd just eaten a plate full of greasy food at the Bashful Bull which didn't sit particularly well.
Nevertheless, the restroom was reasonably clean, & the guy in line behind me was kind of a jerk, so I took my time & left quickly (HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT, BUDDY).
I've always wanted to insert allusions to pooping into a yelp review, & fittingly, Starbucks has given me that golden opportunity. If nothing else, corporate coffee shops are good for one thing: Me to poop in.
[But really, nothing but love for this particular Starbucks, as without it, I might've been in some trouble]
This might be my favorite Starbucks, even though I've only been here twice... the baristas are friendly, they make the drinks super-fast, there's a large selection of pastries, AND.... there's a f*-ing FIREPLACE here. Which is good, because that is one foggy neighborhood.
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Needing some caffeine comfort, I sat in a cafe off the Champs-Elysees in Paris and ordered a latte. The waiter gave me a quizzical eyebrow look and questioned "latte"? I nodded "oui". Frenchie then returned with a cup of tea. TEA??! I SAID LATTE!
WHAT'S COOL about Starbucks, they never make that mistake and if you're ever homesick while traveling abroad, just step into Starbucks and BAM! It's like you never left your American city home. I like the Portola store because of the easy parking, choice between table or couch seating, and the cozy fireplace.
WHAT'S UNCOOL about SBs:
-When someone gets their drink before me, even though I ordered first
-When they short me a couple of ounces on a 16 oz cup
-When they ask for my name to write on the cup. I silently giggle and say "Al Coohalic"
-The calories that accompany an ExtraHotGrandeCaramelMarchiato
Did you know the Starbucks logo is a sea siren, a two-tailed mermaid whose songs would lure sea men to their deaths. Seductive siren = seductive drink. Earlier versions of the logo displayed the nekkid mermaid in its entirety, navel revealed and two tails spread Penthouse style. Now that's a cup quote.
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Anyone who give me anything for free gets an automatic five stars, even if it's right before closing and they were going to throw it out anyway. That's just good service!
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Ok. This was a tough one. This is my "neighborhood" Starbucks and I go there quite often. It's relatively quiet, clean, has lots of seating, a fireplace, and clean bathrooms. If it wasn't for all of that it would only get 1 star and even as I write this I have my doubts about giving it 3 stars instead of 2. Main reason? The coffee drinks. Now if I'm paying almost $4 for a latte I expect it to properly made. They do a fine job with the espresso but they have absolutely no idea how to steam the milk. This has happened over and over and over again. I even tried to explain it to them but they got all pissed. The milk is supposed to be velvety and smooth. The foam is supposed to have small bubbles and the foam is supposed to last for the entire time it takes you to enjoy your drink. What you get instead is a thin watery drink. I even told them to make it just like Peet's does but they didn't get it ;-)
5 stars because this Starbucks is fast, has great service and the fireplace is awesome. I now expect too much from any other Starbucks I go too!
The idea of going to Starbucks doesn't sit well with me, but this particular Starbucks is very good. The staff is friendly, and usually very fast. I would give them 5 stars, but it's Starbucks and I just can't bring myself to do that.
This Starbucks rocks! I stop by this Twin Peaks location prior to starting my commute to work each morning. The consistently great coffee, teamed with the uber friendly morning staff (who already know my order before I reach the counter) as well as the comfortable decor and cozy fireplace make it really tough to leave this place, especially on those cool foggy San Francisco mornings.
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